how much should recording cost?

bathroom gurgle

how much should it cost a band to do a first album in a studio?

i've been using boards quite a lot lately to see what general peoples views are because i really don't know much about 'the industry'. i'm in a band that have been together for a while and there's a lot of discussion going on about different things to do such as 'should we find a manager?' or 'should we do a music video?'. another idea has been to do an album and the rest of the guys have their heart set on it. i was wondering how much people thought it should cost for a band to do their first album. we were planning on spending 10 months to a year doing it if not more. the idea of doing it ourselves has been outvoted so its seems to be set that we're doing it in a studio. we were going to do an ep or single but were advised that it would be cheaper in the long run to do an album. can anyone help me out?

DamagedTrax

theres a lot of factors involved here.

1st - make sure you know what you're doing on each day in the studio. this will cut down on costs.

2nd - get a producer if you can, he can help with decisions that the rest just cant agree on. he can also give impartial advice and will (possibly) be able to get you better deals on a studio aswell as prepare you for the process in pre-production so you dont waste valuable time and money sitiing around an expensive studio trying to come up with "that killer riff"

3rd - budget. you could spent anything from a few grand up to silly money. it all depends on how much you can afford, the quality of the studio, who you choose to produce or record or mix or master.

sorry if im a little vague but its a question with a million differant answers.

PaulBrewer

Hello Mr. Bathroom.

If you're in no hurry then start talking to bands whose recordings you like.
They'll give you guidance and their experience will help you make your decision.

Don't limit yourself to local either. If there's a producer who you'd love to work with , track him down. Not too hard on the internet.

The overriding factor is always money. The more you have the more options you have.

PMI

Hi, to be honest its a hard question to come up with total costs as if you want it done to release standards sometimes that can take a while.

How much studio experience do you guys have? this plays a massive part in the whole process are you comfortable doing over dubs and vocals while a whole room is watching you (sometimes), is ths drummer good and does he like the work CLICK

There are ways to help yourself by doing most of the homework up front:

1: Choose and stick to the songs your going to do (unless a miracle occurs)
2: rehearse and rehease and did I mention rehease them in and out until your bored of them.
3: Dont go into a studio worrying about costs most studios offer day / weekend / weekly rates so you can budget up front and relax when you arrive its bad news to be looking at the clock it wont help.
4: Arrive at the studio with an open mind, and instrument ammo ie:

Drummer bring all your snares and different skins, cymbals and perc not just the kit you use live, and also we dont care that your nice shinny new snare cost 1k the 200 quid one is sounding better on this track (be open)

Guitarist again bring as many guitars as possible and amps most studios have the holy grail of tele, strat and les paul so you will have alittle bit of backup.

Same applies to everyone else bring anything you think you can apply to your songs or session apart from hangers on (best mates etc.. not the best idea)

5: Work out how you work best and at what times, for example: my band gigs a hell of alot and we know that we dont start sessions unless provoked before noon and no vocals will be thought about till maybe 8pm onwards usually 10 ish as thats when we usually sing at gigs etc.. so our sessions stop for lunch at 6 and dinner at 11pm and stop at 4 or 5, thats how we work so maybe look at whats best for yourselves.

6: someone else can add to this my fingers are faling off... haha

Good luck anyway I hope you can get something from it at least

Cheers

Ed

bathroom gurgle

hey thanks for the help. i'll give you a few more details. we rehearse in this studio in blackhorse called 147 studio. the producer in there has been offering pre production and 10 months of recording for €10,000. its one day a week and whatever day he's free. does anyone think that although its a good service that amount of money is a bit excessive? i'm only asking because i don't know. two of us want to shop around and two of us want to go for this guy purely because we know him and he knows what he's talking about.

DamagedTrax

bathroom gurgle wrote: »

hey thanks for the help. i'll give you a few more details. we rehearse in this studio in blackhorse called 147 studio. the producer in there has been offering pre production and 10 months of recording for €10,000. its one day a week and whatever day he's free. does anyone think that although its a good service that amount of money is a bit excessive? i'm only asking because i don't know. two of us want to shop around and two of us want to go for this guy purely because we know him and he knows what he's talking about.

first of all break the cost down. 10,000 @ essentially 1 day a week for for 10 months is 250 per day. this in itself isnt a bad price for a medium spec studio with a decent engineer and 147 looks to have a nice bit of kit

BUT

does that price include engineer time? mastering? is the producer good enough to demand that kind of money? who has he worked with before?

i understand if you dont want to break the costs down but without knowing where the money is going that could either be a bargain or a complete rip-off.

1 thing i will say is that recording over that amount of time is not ideal. songs will become stale. i think a much shorter session is always more advisable. one of the biggest things in getting a good record is the vibe (more important than nearly everything else IMO) and i cant see how you could keep a vibe up on stretched out recordings like that.

also, 40 days of recording is a little excessive for recording an album, if you take it as 10 songs, thats nearly 4 days recording on each song!!! (unless he's adding mixing time on top)

bathroom gurgle

ok thanks i mean it works out at €62.50 a week each but its still quite a bit of money in the long run. i'll have to ask him about what else is involved in that price if anything is. thanks for the help

trackmixstudio

Hi bathroom gurgle
I have PMed you to see if you want to try out my studio for a day free of charge to see how you get on.

DamagedTrax

bathroom gurgle wrote: »

ok thanks i mean it works out at €62.50 a week each but its still quite a bit of money in the long run. i'll have to ask him about what else is involved in that price if anything is. thanks for the help

well like i said it could be a bargain.

if i was to record a band 250 a day would probably be about right for recording time, so saying its expensive isnt exactly true.

like i said it all depends on the studio's ability to give you a finished product thats up to the standards that you paid for.

again, just by looking at 147 (without knowing their output) i'd say the price is spot on.

PaulBrewer

bathroom gurgle wrote: »

hey thanks for the help. i'll give you a few more details. we rehearse in this studio in blackhorse called 147 studio. the producer in there has been offering pre production and 10 months of recording for €10,000. its one day a week and whatever day he's free. does anyone think that although its a good service that amount of money is a bit excessive? i'm only asking because i don't know. two of us want to shop around and two of us want to go for this guy purely because we know him and he knows what he's talking about.

That seems quite a bit of time - why so long?

I'd imagine it will be difficult to keep up 'Day One' momentum towards the end of the year. At one day a week I know I'd be bored after a few months - though that is very much my perspective.

I think the guy is a customer of ours (if I'm thinking of the right chap) and he does have a great attitude and a desire to make things better all the time.

Perhaps you should look around and if you find no one better go with him.

PaulBrewer

Yep, it's the guy I thought it was ok.

I'd say you're in safe hands - but do check other hands.

jtsuited

PaulBrewer wrote: »

That seems quite a bit of time - why so long?

I'd imagine it will be difficult to keep up 'Day One' momentum towards the end of the year. At one day a week I know I'd be bored after a few months - though that is very much my perspective.
.

I've worked on a project like this, and it can be ideal for some artists, nightmare for others.

If you have a good few people invested (both emotionally and financially) it can help keep the ball rolling no end.

bathroom gurgle

so whats the general consensus? should we go for it or not? the main problem here is i don't think i enough money but there's probably ways of making money besides the job...

DamagedTrax

bathroom gurgle wrote: »

so whats the general consensus? should we go for it or not? the main problem here is i don't think i enough money but there's probably ways of making money besides the job...

only you can decide that. do you think his work is worth the price? we can only advise on what we can see and like i said the kit loist looks quite nice.

PaulBrewer

bathroom gurgle wrote: »

so whats the general consensus? should we go for it or not? the main problem here is i don't think i enough money but there's probably ways of making money besides the job...

Have you got these scheckles ready to go, or are you just thinking of spending that sort of money?

Of course making an album is only the start of it.

Have you considered other options ? A single, EP etc to test the waters?

Maybe no one will want to hear your stuff !;)

What's the masterplan ?

PaulBrewer

Do you have a MySpace ?

tweeky

I think it would be better do 5 day weeks, what happens if you are rocking on a track and have to break down the gear and go home? jeez a week later you would forget what song you were on!
If It's a 40 day session i think 8 x 5 day weeks would be the proper way to do it.
40 days is a short time for an album so plan wisely.

bathroom gurgle

ok well here's how it is. our myspace is myspace.com/thezenyth for paul

i study design so i can get a design for the album done for free but it could cost another €2000 to print and duplicate.

the idea of making our money back at all seems to be ignored by my band mates and thats why i'm here trying to find out as much as i can.

the idea of an ep was on the table but it was advised to us that we should do an album and release an ep or a single on the way as it would be cheaper in the long run rather than just recording an ep and getting sick of it and doing another one a few months later and wasting money.

other ideas are being dreamed up such as going to england to live there and promote the album that way but i can't see how we can afford to do any of this.

unfortunately they're not open to the idea of not doing an album. they've heard we can and now we are.

i'd love to do it and in an ideal world i wouldn't think twice about it but i'm still in college and only work for the summer. i worked the entire summer last year and didn't even make €2000 and this costs €2500 not including everything else

do you think i should get the guys who are definately into it to write out all the information needed and prices so i can make a good decision that way? i know the €62.50 a week doesn't sound like much but there's going to be much more costs than just that. i know how good this guy at 147 is and i know he's the best for the job but when it comes down to it the problem is money. i think this might be the only thing i can do for the moment

PaulBrewer

Slow down and do your research is my advice, you're only new once.

bathroom gurgle

thanks. we've been described as a good band who just need guidance and i think this is clearly one of those occasions...

PaulBrewer

The truth is no one is waiting for your album but you and you're clearly inexperienced.

Stall the digger for the year - do a bit of experimenting.

I'd guess you'll be an entirely different band in 10 months anyway .....

Best of Luck though, and keep working!

Rockshamrover

PaulBrewer wrote: »

The truth is no one is waiting for your album but you and you're clearly inexperienced.

Stall the digger for the year - do a bit of experimenting.

I'd guess you'll be an entirely different band in 10 months anyway .....

Best of Luck though, and keep working!

Great advise.

catho_monster

The biggest question to me is, are you taking the "long" approach because the producer proposed that way to ye?
Is it because ye have work/college commitments that prevent ye being able to take time off to do it in one go?
Are there financial issues (i.e. not being able to afford the money in one go).

Because I agree with some of the points made here, that to drag it out one day a week it's easy to lose momentum. And if ye keep developing as a band (as any regularly rehearsing band will) you'll change/grow/reinterpret yourselves. So what happens if you get to the end of 10 months and say, wow this stuff now is great, but the first tracks we put down pale in comparison? You've just spend 10,000 to realise that the "long" way isnt' the way for ye...

(PS. with that in mind, trackmix's offer is invaluable. go in. spend a day. see how much work needs to be put in, how long things take. see how you work in a studio environment. then come home and discuss whether ye think doing that once a week, or every day for a set period of time would suit ye)

The only thing you can do is contact producers directly. Tell them what ye want (i.e. an album) how you want to work it (long, short, weekends, overnights - whatever work/college will fit in) and get prices. Do your research. Compare and contrast quotes.



If you want to make an album now, then by all means go for it. But find the way that works best for ye, not just the way that the nearest producer says works for him. You're paying him good money (he's not doing you a massive deal) so get a way that works for ye.

bathroom gurgle

bump

Seziertisch

I would say it might be an idea to think about getting a couple of tracks done first before going the whole album route. Based on the tracks on myspace you seem to be the kind of band that would benefit from an everyone in the room live approach. I would suggest getting really well rehearsed (you might be already) and then thinking about laying things down one or two songs at a time. Make your visit to the studio an event which everyone is psyched for and not something that drags on in dribs and drabs over time.

Otherwise, whoever you decide to work with be sure to hear stuff they have done already, and maybe get a second opinion from someone on their set up (i.e. the recording space and the gear they have to offer (both recording gear and instruments etc.)). The cheapest isn't always going to be the best, and for guitar based stuff if you want results that sound like whoever then a good sounding room with a certain level of equipment is needed. No amount of M-boxery in a poor sounding room is going to get things to sound like it was recorded in Abbey Road. But a good sounding room with good gear allows you to at least get it into the ball park.

studiorat

Too long a time span. Especially starting off...

What exactly is the purpose of this proposed album? Selling at gigs, getting gigs, commercial release, coffee coasters? What?

then figure out is €10,000 worth it, I've done good ones for less... there's a couple of lads here who'd be thrilled to see you turn up at the door on a deal like that...

Why don't you do an EP instead? Cheaper to do, easier to sell. And you can release 3 a year and have a reason to do a promotion 3 times instead of just once!

€10,000 is a good budget to do an album, but I don't think you should blow that, or start paying it off over 10 months.

I also think you'll get printing and manufacturing done cheaper too!

if you are seriously thinking of spending that kind of money, I'd get a producer, give them a budget and get him to come back to you with plan and a price. You could easily get into a very serious studio for that kind of bread.

dav nagle

1 Great single is better than 9 inexperienced expensive tracks, thread carefully and get one track done well and then you will know more about the business and the time and effort involved. 1k for one good track is a great starting point. Have the producer work with you to get a good result, thats what they do after all ha?

pinksoir

I'd hold on and have a good think. we got 2 weeks in Electrical Audio for that money, flights and all. That was even a long time compared to most bands going in there too. It was a squeeze towards the end but we got it all in.

We'd done recording before, in the Asylum on Abbey St., over a long period of time when we were only starting out, and whilst it was a good learning experience, getting to know how studio time works etc, there really is no alternative to being ridiculously well rehearsed and having one session to knock down your album. It takes a few days to get into a proper groove recording, hell, even the first tracks we put down are noticably different to the later ones, and that was just one continuous session. I did find that the first few takes of the day were usually the best, though. Diminishing returns and all that.

My advice; rehearse, rehearse, rehearse, then have one long session. By the sounds of your myspace you sound like a live band anyway. Momentum is key. You can't get that once a week. Too much space to think can really be detrimental to a song, and I say this from experience.

Though on the flip side there is Jellyfish...

johnnylakes

PaulBrewer wrote: »

Slow down and do your research is my advice, you're only new once.

+100...We were in your position a couple of years ago..rushed into it...got an album(self recorded produced on a minimal set-up) 'out' ...and now listen back with an equal measure of pride and regret..
Despite selling our fair share and getting played on the radio, I think in hindsight we didn't really put our best foot forward so to speak.
We decided we were in this for the long haul..
So we invested in a slighty better set-up..more outboard gear etc. and studied the craft of recording a bit more... it made sense for us to build our own studio and take the time required to figure things out. We are currently finishing up our second album. It's by no means as good quality as the big boys, but it is infinitley better than our first attempt..
Basically we have done 2 albums and build a wee studio for close to what it would have cost us to do one album 'properly'. The way we look at it is we have a studio for life now,which we can upgrade as time passes and can make as many albums as we like..to an acceptable standard...by the time we get to album no 10 it could be a work of genius!!!

Don't know if this helps...but it's an angle I guess..

madtheory

Good advice in this thread, IMHO.

bathroom gurgle wrote: »

ok well here's how it is. our myspace is myspace.com/thezenyth for paul

Not a link. Clearly, the advice is wasted